Use Route Level & MSA in the Alps

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Use Route Level & MSA in the Alps

Author	Message
RainerM	R RainerM posted 6/28/2022 12:19:24 PM Topic Details Share Topic
R Group: Forum Members Posts: 22, Visits: 0	When I was planning my way through Austria on GAFOR routes, I also tried the "Use Route Level" option. I must admit that I did not understand what this route level is based on. Could you please explain it. In the Alps I also get MSA suggested that are much higher than I would expect them to be. Especially in the Alps it is very difficult to determine the best altitude to fly because the track does not follow the valleys. Could you please explain what the MSA in mountainous areas is based on? Thanks a lot.
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Tim Dawson	Tim Dawson posted 6/30/2022 11:30:01 AM Post Details Share Post
Group: Forum Members Posts: 7.8K, Visits: 8.5K	"Use Route Level" just means that the leg does not have its own level specified; the general level for the whole journey is assumed (set in Flight Details). The documentation will tell you more about MSA, but in general you control the planning options responsible for calculating your MSA. It consists of horizontal and vertical proximity to terrain. You may wish to make these corridors quite narrow if you're flying in the mountains, and I would especially advise you to take advantage of our Colour High Terrain feature so you can see exactly where the high terrain is.
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RainerM	R RainerM posted 7/29/2022 8:16:15 PM Post Details Share Post
R Group: Forum Members Posts: 22, Visits: 0	+x Tim Dawson - 6/30/2022 11:30:01 AM "Use Route Level" just means that the leg does not have its own level specified; the general level for the whole journey is assumed (set in Flight Details). The documentation will tell you more about MSA, but in general you control the planning options responsible for calculating your MSA. It consists of horizontal and vertical proximity to terrain. You may wish to make these corridors quite narrow if you're flying in the mountains, and I would especially advise you to take advantage of our Colour High Terrain feature so you can see exactly where the high terrain is. Having flown ALPs a lot now, I have found that the Austrian GAFOR track Refernce Alitude is always a good reference for flight planning. The Ref Altitude is published by AustroControl for planning purposes. It indicates the highest altitude at which the valley of the route is still at least 1200m wide. If the Ref Altitude is used, there will always be a difference between the calculated MSA in the Briefing Pack / PLOG and this value. This is understandable since SkyDemon uses the calculated MSA while the pilot uses the Ref Altitude. On the other hand, it is annoying when an MSA is always displayed in red in the PLOG. Would it be possible to link the MSA with the Ref Altitude in the PLOG to avoid the disturbance caused by the red color? Maybe as a checkbox in leg properties ?
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